Come to think of it, changing pets to be unaffected by recharge buffs is an excellent reason to make all the recharge buffing powers a little better. Speed Boost, Accelerate Metabolism, Adrenalin Boost, etc.
I'll agree that it's kind of a pain to keep applying. One thing that makes it slightly better is doing key binds to your numeric pad so you are just pushing the 1-8 keys to select and SB corresponding teammates.
If someone is not in range when I go through the numbers they don't get it that round.
I would not mind that, kent. And I do have the binds. It's still a pain. Especially when they [censored] for it right in the middle of the mob.
I'm seriously thinking of respecing out of it. THey can just live with the damage and resistance buffs, and the heals. And let's not forget the ice controls.
If anything kinetics needs a nerf.
I beleive you're talking about late game, where Speed Boost is kinda meh and Fulcrum Shift is the number one leading cause of happiness. Personally, I prefer to tell people who whine about SB to shut the [censored] up... which is probably why people don't me when I'm on my kins :/
But anyway, kin is at least powerful enough and doesn't at all need a buff. People need to just stop watching the buff bar for when SB drops and start playing their own toons better.
My problem with Speed Boost is that the developers have balanced it not around recharge, endurance cost, or power, but around a cost in irritation. The power is literally balanced around the idea that "yeah you can use it to keep a team running, but boy is it annoying!"
I used to develop spells for a different MMO (not that this gives any special weight to my opinion). In that game, we routinely rewrote spells that fell into the "too good to be true but annoying as heck" pile. SB is a perfect example of that kind of power. It's like the game is beating you in the face with the power. It's a combination of it being simultaneously (IMO) overpowered, having a short duration, and a very fast recharge. To NOT use the power is a huge mistake, because it is so effective. But to USE the power is so annoying that you just wish you didn't have the power at all.
Well said Tex.
The speed boost is such a complicated topic. You only get to choose so many powers, and it is generous enough for a non-defender to select a power that does nothing for them aside from cost endurance. Generally when I am in a group I say 'I have speed boost, if you dont want it speak up now, if you do, I will try to keep it up, but i have many other powers that are far better, and have more than 1 slot.'
I was on a team recently, it was fantastic. Not once did they ask for speedboost. I got ZERO 'sb' messages. All i got was "ty"'s. These people must play often enough without a controller to really appreciate one being around. They are out there FromBelow!
PS: I read a post about someone slotting SB with 4 run enhancers. He said the requests stopped coming. HA!
SB is AWSOME! I don't care how many walls I bounce off of. If I can't have AM I want SB... On my /Rad I used to Power Build Up and hit AM for some serious run speed... that was always fun! I wonder if it still works? I might have to go back to it now that there are dual builds possible.
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My problem with Speed Boost is that the developers have balanced it not around recharge, endurance cost, or power, but around a cost in irritation. The power is literally balanced around the idea that "yeah you can use it to keep a team running, but boy is it annoying!"
I used to develop spells for a different MMO (not that this gives any special weight to my opinion). In that game, we routinely rewrote spells that fell into the "too good to be true but annoying as heck" pile. SB is a perfect example of that kind of power. It's like the game is beating you in the face with the power. It's a combination of it being simultaneously (IMO) overpowered, having a short duration, and a very fast recharge. To NOT use the power is a huge mistake, because it is so effective. But to USE the power is so annoying that you just wish you didn't have the power at all.
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This is a good post, and I agree with it entirely. In my opinion speed boost should be more like fortitude. Perhaps increase its effect a bit more to compensate but then as a Kin you wouldn't be under constant pressure to cast, cast and recast. Same for increased density.
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My problem with Speed Boost is that the developers have balanced it not around recharge, endurance cost, or power, but around a cost in irritation. The power is literally balanced around the idea that "yeah you can use it to keep a team running, but boy is it annoying!"
I used to develop spells for a different MMO (not that this gives any special weight to my opinion). In that game, we routinely rewrote spells that fell into the "too good to be true but annoying as heck" pile. SB is a perfect example of that kind of power. It's like the game is beating you in the face with the power. It's a combination of it being simultaneously (IMO) overpowered, having a short duration, and a very fast recharge. To NOT use the power is a huge mistake, because it is so effective. But to USE the power is so annoying that you just wish you didn't have the power at all.
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LOL, I'm quite sure it wasn't built around that factor at all, but once the junkies got hooked the devs probably didn't want to adjust it due to the fact it's YMMV "overpowered"
Kinetics is so widely used, I doubt any changes will be made to it in the near future.
Freedom Bound!!!
I wouldn't mind seeing it be a 4 minute buff like many other buffs, or better yet, an AOE buff akin to rad's AM - if that necessitates a nerf to the buff's potency for balance purposes, so be it - the playerbase could stand to be weaned off the stuff anyway. "Annoyance" (or as the person a few posts up wisely noted: "irritation") is really a lazy way of trying to balance the power on the devs' part. Do better.
I really don't think it's that hard to do SB every two minutes. You can set up a cycling bind that will let you hit one button over and over to SB your whole team. If you can't tap one key sixteen times (I tend to separate my targeting and casting binds) every two minutes, you should not be playing a buff set.
It's not that hard. Really.
@Mental Maden @Maden Mental
"....you are now tackle free for life."-ShoNuff
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If you can't tap one key sixteen times (I tend to separate my targeting and casting binds) every two minutes, you should not be playing a buff set.
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Having to hit one key 16 times is exactly what I'm talking about when I say the power is balanced by irritation. There is no strategy to it, outside of long fights. There is little concern about endurance. It's just the game interface forcing you to write a keybind and hit a key 16 times (or 480 times per hour, assuming you're slick enough to replace the buff the instant it expires) because the power works that way and to not use it gimps your team. It, and powers like it, seem more designed for a computer than an actual human player.
By the way please post that keybind!
I don't have it directly at hand, but it's sixteen different files - you have the first bind target team member #1 and point to the second bind, second bind Speed Boosts your target and points at the third bind, third bind targets team member #2...and so on.
A simple solution would be to change Speed Boost into a PBAoE power (like Inertial Reduction).
Just a thought
Currently Playing:
A bunch of toons! (Freedom, Virtue, and a few on Infinity)
A similar argument from the other side:
Why do I have to press the Howl and Scream buttons over and over? They're on this frequent, every-few-seconds recharge, as if the game wouldn't know I want to shoot my opponents as frequently as possible. Why can't I just hit the "shoot stuff" button? It seems like this combat is written more for a computer than a human being.
The fact of the matter is, many people like blasting more than they like buffing. They'd much rather use this game to express their dominance over the enemies, rather than their support for their teammates. This is what causes these complaint threads. But, frankly, I like teamwork, I like buffing my allies, and I enjoy the part of the game where I can click powers and help them out. I like blasting, too, mostly for the AoEs. I actually find the single-target attacks boring, because I have to use them to plink-plink-plink away at the last one or two stragglers in a group. Different people enjoy different parts of the game. Just because clicking one type of power isn't your cup of tea, doesn't mean it's broken. Even the powers you do like are of the form "click click CLICK CLICK KEEP ON CLICKING OVER AND OVER". That's all this game is. There's nothing we can do about it.
I team with the Repeat Offenders.
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Why do I have to press the Howl and Scream buttons over and over? They're on this frequent, every-few-seconds recharge, as if the game wouldn't know I want to shoot my opponents as frequently as possible.
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Maybe the solution is to reduce buff durations down to 10 seconds. That sounds like a lot of fun.
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Why do I have to press the Howl and Scream buttons over and over? They're on this frequent, every-few-seconds recharge, as if the game wouldn't know I want to shoot my opponents as frequently as possible.
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Maybe the solution is to reduce buff durations down to 10 seconds. That sounds like a lot of fun.
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Personally I'd love to see a set consisting that consists of nothing but buffs that are around as powerful as Build Up and Moment of Glory, but only last 10 seconds. It'd be nice to have a buff set that was completely based around proper timing and target choice like any attack set.
Of course you'd probably see this same thread with same people complaining because they can't wrap their minds around using buffs strategically....
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Come to think of it, changing pets to be unaffected by recharge buffs is an excellent reason to make all the recharge buffing powers a little better. Speed Boost, Accelerate Metabolism, Adrenalin Boost, etc.
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I won't speak for the others, but AM also buffs damage and recovery, and it is an area of effect buff rather then being individually targeted. Speaking as the player of several ill/rads, AM does not need a boost.
Infinity:
Ellen, 50 MA/Inv Scr
February Night, 14 Ice/Ice Blstr
Guardian:
SilverSwordmaid, 29 Kat/Rgn Scr
Vicious Killer, 33 Emp/Enrgy Def
Electromagness, 40 Rad/Rad Def
Sense of Humor, 50 Fire/En Tank
Virtue:
Kickfest, 50 MA/SR Scr
Freedom:
Glorious Ending, 29 EM/DA Bru
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The fact of the matter is, many people like blasting more than they like buffing. They'd much rather use this game to express their dominance over the enemies, rather than their support for their teammates. This is what causes these complaint threads. But, frankly, I like teamwork, I like buffing my allies, and I enjoy the part of the game where I can click powers and help them out. I like blasting, too, mostly for the AoEs. I actually find the single-target attacks boring, because I have to use them to plink-plink-plink away at the last one or two stragglers in a group. Different people enjoy different parts of the game. Just because clicking one type of power isn't your cup of tea, doesn't mean it's broken. Even the powers you do like are of the form "click click CLICK CLICK KEEP ON CLICKING OVER AND OVER". That's all this game is. There's nothing we can do about it.
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Love this guy. The truth is, I never truly appreciated speed boost until I rolled a kin defender. I too favor sets that allow me to help my teammates, either through direct buffs (FF, Kin, Sonic, etc...) or indirect debuffs.
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It's still a pain. Especially when they [censored] for it right in the middle of the mob..
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It only takes two clicks to put someone on ignore.
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I really don't think it's that hard to do SB every two minutes. You can set up a cycling bind that will let you hit one button over and over to SB your whole team. If you can't tap one key sixteen times (I tend to separate my targeting and casting binds) every two minutes, you should not be playing a buff set.
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The point is that while you are hitting that key 16 times, there's other stuff you are not doing. If I were a kin defender, it would be no sweat. But I posted this in the troller forums. I'm an ice troller. I can shut down gobs of mobs....if I am not hitting speedboost all the time
I say it over and over again, but the best solution would be to make siphon speed work like siphon power does, and give /kin something else to occupy the spot speed boost is in.
@Dysc, on virtue:
Virtue blues: Overnight (DP/MM), Kid Ridiculous (FC/rad), Panorama (Ill/time)
Virtue reds: Block Party (SS/SD), Goldcrush (earth/fire), Deadwire (claws/elec), Snowcrush (ice/kin)
I've just gotten off a team with yet another bunch of people letting me know they need SB the split second that the current SB wears off. I think SB doesn't last long enough. I am an ice/kin controller, but to the rest of the world I might as well be a kin/ defender, because nobody complains if I fail to control mobs, but they sure complain instantly if they don't get thier SB. The buff doesn't last long enough. I'd like to think that I am a good controller, and have even offered to tank for teams because I think I can control so much, and if you actually give me a tank, I, as the lone controller, can make pretty much any team able to move through lvl 54 AE boss missions of pretty much any type. I have all my ice powers slotted well and I use them well and I can keep just about anyone on their back and slowed and confused and held to the point of uselessness. But nobody really seems to notice that. They just want their SB, and I pretty much spend all my time SBing everyone.
If they made SB last longer, wold that really hurt the balance of the game? I might actually have some time to control things if I weren't forced to spam SB.
Honestly, this issue is enough to make me not want to take my ice/kin to 50. I am on a real controller kick right now, and am having a blast with this one, but am seriously thinking of taking another toon, like maybe ice/rad, because I don't want to spend 95% of my time being a second-rate kin defender. But if I could count on SBing people every 3 minutes or more, then I might actually feel like a controller. I really don't think the game balance would be upset in any way. I would just be less annoyed.
What do people say? I know kin is a highly praised set, considered uber by the community at large. But I am just not sure I want to play it because nobody will be satisfied with me SBing them 'every now and then.' People actually walk away thinking I am a lousy controller even though I have been keeping the entire team alive with my controls. I think if I were an ice/rad, I could at least feel like a controller without any hassle from other players.